Play | Creative Play | Imaginative Play

Play Street Museum offers a variety of creative play and imaginative play opportunities for kid's activities in the Dallas, Texas area.

Why Play?

Comprehensive research in the field of child development and educational psychology continues to add to the already overwhelming evidence supporting the significant developmental benefits of open and pretend play for young children.

Providing time for our children to have self directed play stimulates their imaginations, encourages them to problem solve, and allows them to refine their social skills – helping them to build a strong framework for a lifetime of learning.

In a recent Scientific American article, The Need for Pretend Play in Child Development, Yale professor Dr. Scott Barry Kaufman and his distinguished co-authors Dr. Jerome L. Singer and Dr. Dorothy G. Singer, summarize the last 75 years of research on this topic by declaring imaginative play as ‘a vital component to the normal development of a child’.

Despite all that we know about the benefits of play, the actual time children spend playing continues to decline precipitously. According to a recent study (Elkind, 2008), children today play eight hours less each week than their counterparts did only two decades ago.

Equipped with this body of knowledge we must take action for the sake of our children on what inherently and deep down I think we always knew well. Increasing the use of standardized tests, decreasing time for recess, rote memorization of facts/figures, and over structured schedules will not create the visionary leaders and creators our world needs now more than ever.

We must let our kids play as if our future depends on it… because in fact it does!

What the experts say about PLAY

PLAY builds the foundation for a lifetime of learning (Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000).

In PLAY, children develop a lasting disposition to learn (Erikson, 1985; Hurwitz, 2003).